The Shadow of Anakin Part I: Why Kylo and Anakin are Nothing Alike

Posted on January 11, 2016by A Certain Point of View

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Though Anakin Skywalker has been dead for thirty years, the specter of his memory still looms over the Star Wars universe. His shadow is most obviously personified by his grandson: Kylo Ren, a young fanatic seduced by the dark side, obsessed with Vader’s exploits, and striving to live up to Vader’s legacy. A Skywalker, powerful in the Force, and obsessed with power and willing to hurt those he loves to get it. It seems like Kylo is well on his way to filling Vader’s boots.

The comparison between Vader and Kylo is an interesting one because while their narratives seem alike on the surface, a deeper look reveals that not to be the case at all. Sure, they both crave power from the dark side, they’re both angsty, they have scary masks, and they both see no problem in hurting those they care about in their quest for power and glory. But, for all Kylo’s Vader fanboyism and desire to emulate his grandfather, the two characters actually share very few similarities when it comes to their pursuit of power. And that is going to play a key role in how their redemption narratives play out.

Obviously we know very little about the details of Ben’s backstory, so a significant part of this is based on speculation drawn from context clues present in The Force Awakens. But based on what we see of Kylo and what we can surmise about the state of the galaxy, it’s clear that Vader and Kylo are actually quite different in how they fell to the dark side. And that difference is due to a couple key aspects of their pre-dark side selves, Anakin and Ben.

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Fifty Ways to Leave Your Daughter: Rey Durron, and Other Fun Ideas

Posted on January 8, 2016by , , , and Not A Committee

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Let’s get this out of the way: even many detractors of The Force Awakens concede that Rey is the wonderful, nuanced female Star Wars lead we’ve always wanted but never dared to dream we would get. That was the case from the moment she popped up on our movie screens, and it’s enormously unlikely that any new information regarding her origins would change that. Her being a Skywalker would not diminish her value any more than Darth Vader being a Skywalker diminished Luke’s.

That said, I’ll be damned if it isn’t fun to guess! Speaking for myself, it all comes down to the execution; I can see a version of Rey Skywalker that I love just as easily as I can see one I hate, and that applies to all the possibilities. There’s more than enough evidence to go around (there’s even a spreadsheet out there, because of course there is) and keep us guessing and debating for the next eighteen months—at least!—so I wanted to see where we at ETE stand right now. Think of this as a snapshot more than battle lines; I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of our minds are changed as the months go by. Mine has already.

Speaking of which, I’ll be back at the end with my own totally batshit theory, because that’s how I roll, but where are you guys leaning right now? What’s the most important piece of evidence as you see it—or is it more your personal hopes than an objective analysis? Read More

Fleeing the End: Why I’ve Chosen Not to See The Force Awakens—Yet

Posted on January 6, 2016by Obiwomble's Outlook

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I can already see the questions running through your mind – why not see it now? Why wait? Well, one answer is I know what happens and I’m not 100% in favour of it. Why opt for spoiler info? The last decade of Star Wars product, in terms of what happened a few decades later, is not a pretty story. It’s certainly a tale from which the conclusion to draw is not to trust those supplying it. As a general rule, if I need spoiler info it denotes a lack of confidence. At the same time, it seems abundantly clear that The Force Awakens differs from its predecessors in that it may actually be a planned trilogy. The significance? I’ll get to that, keep reading.

The reason not to see it now is a protective one. You can find info on what goes down in TFA easily, so let’s just say I’m not exactly enthused over what they decided to do with Luke, Han and Leia. I can be fine with it for now, but I suspect there’s a chance seeing the film could have a detrimental effect on my liking for SW. And yet…there’s a sense of déjà vu about all this. About fifteen years ago, I started posting over at Jedi Council Literature, and three months after I joined a book called Vector Prime came out and the forum ended up in a months long conflagration!

VP was the beginning of the New Jedi Order series that saw the galaxy invaded by a bunch of sadomasochistic, biotech-wielding religious fanatics – the Yuuzhan Vong. The threat isn’t taken seriously by the New Republic, even after the Vong have killed Chewbacca, which ultimately leads to the fall of Coruscant two years later. The short story is I wasn’t a fan, despite lots of other people being so – starting to see the pattern here? The big problem with any continuation is how to create a new enemy, without undermining or diminishing the previous victories – in this case, the Battle of Endor. The initial solution for 1991-1999 was to have new enemies but who were not an existential threat. Sure, for a book or two they might be on the edge of victory, but then there’d be a turnaround and, as all villains must, they lose. VP did not so much stick to that template as set it on fire. Read More

First of the New – Why Episode VII Needed to Happen

Posted on January 4, 2016by Scotch Tape and Popsicle Sticks

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When the Disney purchase and the sequel trilogy were announced, my immediate reaction was to be much more excited about the prospect of non-Episode “spinoff” Star Wars movies than about The Force Awakens, then just Episode VII. The Expanded Universe had told all manner of interesting stories in the Galaxy Far Far Away through the tropes and traditions of other genres, and not only did that sort of grab-bag approach appeal more to me off the bat, it just felt safer. Making an “Episode VII” was at best a necessary evil, something that had to be done to establish that this new generation of Star Wars films was as big of a deal as the first six and not just “The Further Adventures of…”; never mind the seemingly monumental task of getting all the original actors back and up to snuff, and never mind what that story might mean for the EU.

For a long time, though, I’ve been hearing whispers (and, I’m sure, lots of baseless speculation) that Disney had no intention of just making a sequel trilogy—the sequels weren’t just a thing they had to get out of the way, they were going to steer the boat, and if all went according to plan there’d be not three but at least six of them. Oy, I thought, Episode XII? Even leaving aside the presence of Anakin Skywalker, Chosen One and Almighty Main Character, making an “Episode” of Star Wars is a high bar, and brings with it all manner of expectations, from an in media res opening crawl to a John Williams score all the way to shot composition and wipes. Releasing an indefinite number of those would at best be a much bigger challenge than the spinoffs (which could at least succeed or fail on their own terms), and at worst, in comparison, would become boring.

Anyway, that was how I felt up until maybe six months ago. And now that I’ve seen The Force Awakens and lived with it for a bit, I think I get it: Star Wars is a serial again.

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Victory Lap – Whatever Happened to Padmé Amidala?

Posted on January 1, 2016by Simple Tricks

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It took me a minute to decide what to say about this one. Some of the pieces we’ve highlighted this week took off like a rocket, while others performed respectably at first but have maintained a steady pace ever since—and this piece, a response to a RetroZap! article by Joseph Tavano, is the latter.

Usually, a piece that surges the second it comes out and then mostly sputters out does so for obvious reasons; controversy in particular. But it’s harder to discern what keeps people coming back to, say, a fourteen-month-old review of a twenty-year-old PC game day in and day out. Sometimes it’s just a case of accidental search engine optimization, but sometimes the subject matter is truly evergreen. Unlike my Jedi Temple piece, which was largely a matter of timing, I think the subject of Padmé’s death has enjoyed a bottomless well of fan interest and speculation as long as it’s been out there.

Joseph’s original piece, Padmé Didn’t Die of a Broken Heart, posited essentially that Palpatine proactively killed her and used her life energy—which is probably a thing in Star Wars, let’s face it—to keep Anakin alive instead, making both Sith culpable in her death in a way. While I don’t give the “broken heart” explanation any more credence than he did, my own theory is that it was in fact the gestating Luke and Leia who were dying from the day’s stresses, and Padmé intuitively gave her life to them with the cooperation of the Living Force. This accomplishes the twin goals (heh) of giving Padmé some agency in her own demise and explaining how a nigh-omnipotent Palpatine could have been so convinced Anakin’s offspring hadn’t survived: the Force lied to him.

This being Star Wars, we’ll probably never get a complete answer to these questions, but this piece has convinced me that people will never stop asking.

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